Garnet W. Taylor, 93, died Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.
He was born Nov. 30, 1915, in Licking, son of Omra O. Taylor and Fannie Rodgers Taylor. He and Melva Russler Taylor were married in 1952. She died in 2002.
He was admitted to the Missouri Bar on Nov. 7, 1942. Four days later, he entered WWII as a private. He rose in rank and was a combat platoon leader with the 101st airborne division as a 1st lieutenant. He served in France and Germany and was at Berchtesgaten, Germany, when the war in Europe ended May 8, 1945. He was injured in France and honorably discharged April 13, 1946, after serving 3 1/2 years.
He was an attorney and IRS agent. He left the IRS on Jan. 1, 1947, and practiced law in every court except the Supreme Court. He handled both civil and criminal cases. He was the last U.S. commissioner, first U.S. magistrate judge for the Eastern District of Missouri and held court in St. Louis and Hannibal. He then became a U.S. bankruptcy judge, a position he held for six years prior to retiring in 1978.
Burial with full military honors is 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, in the family plot in Boone Creek Cemetery under the direction of Fox Funeral Home.
